Simply One of the Best

Last year I showed off a bunch of red & green parallels as I was counting down to Christmas.

While I have been very busy with planning the move and the holidays and work schedule, I do plan to *occasionally* continue that trend this year.

Above is my 2017 Bowman's Best Green and Red refractors of Andrew McCutchen.

The Green is limited to 99 copies.

The Red is limited to 10 copies.

Oddly enough the back mentions Cutch's best game of 2017 as July 30th.

Many players would love to hit 3 HR in a game and getting 2 walks with a great catch will certainly be a memorable game, but I have to believe if you ask Andrew what his best game of 2017 was he would say September 26th.

In that September 26th game Cutch went 4 for 4 with 8 RBI including 2 HR (one being his first Grand Slam). He had that game in his final homestand at PNC Park as a member of the Pirates. 

Would you rather have a game with 3 solo HR and 2 walks 

-OR-

2 HR, 1 double, and an 8 RBI performance?

You're The Best Superfractor

When it comes to chrome cards, very rarely is there any parallels better than a Superfractor.  This 2017 Bowman Best Superfractor is no exception.

I missed putting up a post yesterday showing off a Bowman Best 1/1 so I don't think Mister Miyagi would be very proud of me.  This was a failed week of posts and it's only Tuesday.  Although technically I posted 2 one of ones on Sunday so I'm still on pace.  I'll have to see how the judges rule it...

Time to get amped up for the rest of the week...

Remembering Kobe via Cutch Cards

News broke yesterday afternoon that Kobe Bryant passed away in a helicopter crash.  He was only 41 years old.  His 13 year old daughter was also aboard the helicopter.

The number of accolades and accomplishment that Kobe had on the court immediately puts him in discussions of being of the greatest of All-Time.

He is the first player to wear two numbers in his career and have both numbers retired by the same team.  While it may seem gimmicky, Kobe's numbers with the two numbers (8 and 24) are actually pretty comparable.

Read this article and you can see the crazy parallels of Kobe's number 8 and number 24 journey.

For those that don't want to click the article, here is a snapshot

Number 8
8 All-Stars
3 NBA Championships
16,777 points

Number 24
10 All-Stars
2 NBA Championships
16,866 points


He also won a scoring title with both jersey numbers.

Today I will look at 8 serially numbered 24/xx cards of Andrew McCutchen to remember the Black Mamba.

2017 Donruss Optic Black & Orange Parallels

Numbered 24/25 and 24/199

2016 Topps Pink

 Numbered 24/50

2017 Diamond Kings Blue Artist Proof

 Numbered 24/25

2013 Bowman Chrome Orange Parallel

Numbered 24/25

 2014 Topps Tek TEKtonics insert

Numbered 24/50

 2015 Bowman Best Orange Parallel

Numbered 24/25

2010 Topps Finest Gold Refractor

 Numbered 24/50

Mission Completed!

Yesterday I showed off a near complete rainbow of 2018 Bowman Best. 

The one card I needed is actually one of the most plentiful.  It is the purple refractor numbered to 250 copies.

Much to my surprise, I can now check that off the list as it arrived today as part of a small lot of cards I ordered a few weeks ago. I completely forgot that this purple was part of the lot.

This was actually the focus of the $6 lot.  It is a 2014 Topps Tribite Titan jersey relic.  This is the sepia parallel numbered to 35 copies.  I am nearing completion of this rainbow as well.

Atomic Yankee

Andrew McCutchen hasn't had many Yankees cards produced thus far by Topps.

There was a Short Print in 2018 Update, a Topps Now Postseason Wild Card Game, and an image of him wearing a Yankees uniform for a Topps Now Off-season signing (with Phillies logo in corner).

The only Yankees cards with multiple parallels to chase are his Bowman Best cards.

So far all I have gotten is the Atomic Refractor.  I will likely pick up some of the color parallels in February after the prices drop a little bit more as I have been spending way too much money on his Giants super high end releases recently.

The back talks about his April 7th game where he went 6 for 7 with a stolen base. His final hit of the night was a walk off homerun.

Gonna have to quote Ice Cube for this one

White Whales
Bigfoot
Unicorns

Whatever you call those legendary items that you have only read about and have only seen blurry glimpses of, I am here to tell you they most likely do exist.

I know because I ****ing caught one and am so jacked up about it!

Last year in December I mentioned I had gotten the Cyan Printing Plate from 2015 Bowman Best.  You can see the post here.

The previous year I showed the black printing plate. You can read about it here.

The Magenta has been shown off a few times. Here is 80 of my printing plates (May 2017 edition). Here is 200 of my favorite Cutch hits. (September 2017 edition).  I also recently showed it (along with Julie Benson) during my Save The Boobies event in October here.

Now if you're keeping track, that is the black, cyan, and magenta plates of the same card.

Well....I finally got the yellow to complete my first true rainbow of all four 1/1 printing plates for the same card.

This card didn't come without it's challenges in acquiring it though.  Once it popped up on eBay I immediately hit the buy it now option leaving NO chance for anyone else to get it.

However....

My 1/1 printing plate was sent to the wrong person.

In return I received a redemption card for a certain Kansas City Chiefs player that would have gotten me A LOT more money had I kept that card.

The seller made arrangements with us to ship the cards back and refund us the cost of shipping back to him and the original shipping fees.

So for only $20 I completed my printing plate rainbow.  There are still a few more series that I have 3 out of 4 printing plates for, but Damn does it feel good to pop this cherry.

In addition to having those 4 1/1 printing plates, I also have this 1/1 buyback autograph of the same card.

I plan on getting a custom case to house all four printing plates.  Once I do you can be sure I will show it off here.

The (wrong) Road To Victory

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month.  Visit the official site here.

Breast Cancer will be detected in one of eight women in the US each year.

It is the second leading cause of cancer death among women each year.

On average every 2 minutes a woman will be diagnosed with breast cancer and every 13 minutes one person will die from breast cancer.
There are currently 33 million breast cancer survivors in the USA.

It's important to support the research for cancer.  Breast Cancer is often associated with the color pink so I will be showing off some pink Cutch cards.

In addition, you can expect to see some boobs with each post.  Who doesn't love boobs?

So let's start with what we're hoping to save!

Julia Benson

Her first acting job was about a stripper trying to take care of a football player who couldn't fulfill sexual needs.  The movie was called Road to Victory.

She became very polular in the TV Series Stargate:Universe.

This was in large part because of her large breasts which lead to articles being written called Boobgate.

Other notable credits include

You would have to be an idiot not to notice a hottie like Julia

I sometimes am an idiot, but Topps has been known to make idiot mistakes when editing their cards.

Sometimes Topps purposely makes errors for their Heritage cards (an homage to the vintage brand from the 50s and 60s), but when they show up in other brands they are often not intended.

The 2015 Bowman Best release had some incorrect information on the back of the card.

Cutch's epic walk off homer was July 11th, NOT June 11th.  Whoever missed this, I say this..."What an idiot! That's not the Road to Victory date."

Fortunately the Magenta Plate doesn't have any incorrect information on the back.

I currently have 3 of the plates for this card (magenta pictured below along with black and cyan).

On a completely different note, congrats to David Price for finally winning a playoff game.

The Price is certainly Right now!